Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference temporarily became my hero during last night’s Game 4 against the Canadiens by scoring, then giving Montreal’s inhabitants the finger. He brought the Bruins to within a goal, and they came back to win the game, 5-4, in overtime. Remember what the Habs did to the Caps last year? No, I don’t either. Oh look, here’s my middle finger!

Here’s a video of the incident. Hopefully it’ll still be up when you get around to clicking it.

Sure, it was uncalled for and unprofessional, but middle fingers in big gloves always look hilarious.

As expected, the gesture hurt the butts of those who take sports extremely seriously, and CBC analyst Glenn Healy was quick to express his outrage through The Globe and Mail.

“It’s what he does after he scores the goal that enrages me,” Healy said. “Andrew Ference, you better get ready to open up your wallet because this little act here after you scored the goal … isn’t called for.” The maximum allowed player fine under the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement is only $2,500 (U.S.), a pittance given Ference made $2.25-million this season.

Of course, this is the most bad ass hockey gesturing since James Wisniewski called it like he saw it during a game with the Rangers back in October. Unfortunately for Ference, he’s not a member of the fictional version of the Mighty Ducks and can’t get away with this kind of thing, so he immediately went into damage control mode, doing everything short of claiming somebody hacked his Twitter.

“Coach just showed me it, and it looks awful; I just saw it,” he said. “I can assure you that’s not part of my repertoire. I think my glove got caught up. I can assure you that’s not part of who I am or what I ever have been. It’s looks awful. I admit it and I completely apologize to how it looks. I was putting my fist in the air. I’m sorry. It does look awful. I don’t know what else to say.”

Alternately: aw man you guys i’m sorry i was just trying to ice skate and somehow my fingers got all jammed up and flew into the air, i don’t know how it happened i was just moseyin’ along mindin’ my own when all of a sudden the devil possessed me and caused me to point with the wrong finger, i was tryin’ to point at my friends, i don’t even know what happened, musta been m’helmet i think it was on wrong, somebody put my helmet on me wrong

Oh well. I guess that’s what I get for enjoying an aspect of the Boston Bruins for more than two seconds.